Moving to a road bike - what benefits?

rjkflyer

Hi,

I've recently started cycling in earnest, despite having had a bike of casual use for 10 years...!

I'm riding with guys who have decent road bikes. We're doing 2-3 30 mile trips a week, with 90% on road or metalled track, and 10% other (when we slip up planning the route..!).

I'm curious what real benefit i would get moving to a road bike - I seem to be able to keep up using my hybrid (which is road biased now). Also if I want to do a cycle path, might i start ruling that out if i went road?

I guess I mean Sportiv when i say road. I'm never going to be any sort of hardcore racer.

Bike is Canondale 700 Adventure, Shimano XT rear d/r, Sram 44-11 sprocket set, Shimano DuraAce Triple front d/r, Canondale 48/38/28 chainrings, Shimano XTR parallel brakes, T780 SPD dual pedals. Bit under 12kg all up.

Really value the experienced opinions!

Thanks

unixnerd

A lighter bike just feels better. It'll accelerate slightly faster (especially if the wheels are lighter) and you'll probably find that narrow road tyres at a nice high pressure (get a track pump) have lower rolling resistance than fat 26" tyres. With drop bars you can get down out of the wind and reduce drag (which is a biggie at speed).

But overall you're unlikely to find a massive difference in average speed to begin with. Road bikes just feel much nicer to ride. You'll want to keep the current bike for the winter.

banditvic

About 2- 3mph.